Parkland County residents fight GraceLife Church expansion
A church west of Edmonton that made headlines for defying COVID-19 pandemic health rules hopes to add to its existing space but dozens of people who live nearby are fighting the expansion.
GraceLife Church in Parkland County plans to build a sanctuary and classroom or gym, adding about 1,500 more seats to the organization's current 348-seat capacity.
The county approved the expansion last fall, but dozens of residents and the Enoch Cree Nation oppose the decision saying the county did not provide sufficient notice and they deserve more time to appeal.
On Nov. 15, 2024, Parkland County posted the decision on the county's website.
In a posted on the county's subdivision and development appeal board agenda, the development authority said the project is compatible with surrounding land uses.
The application was circulated to Parkland County's fire prevention, community sustainability, and land development engineering work groups for review and revealed no concerns, the report says.
"The development authority determined that the proposed development will not adversely affect the use and enjoyment of neighbouring country residential properties."
GraceLife Church made headlines in 2021 for holding in-person services that defied COVID-19 public health orders.
Alberta health officials shut down the church in February 2021 after inspectors found it was over capacity and that staff and congregants weren't wearing masks or social distancing.
Pastor James Coates had been cited for violating public health orders by holding church services, but charges against him were dropped in 2023.
Residents opposed
Dozens of residents living in the area oppose the project and formed a collective appellant to present at a subdivision and development appeal board hearing that began Monday.
Hiroki Currie, a resident living in Sunset View Acres across the street, is among those opposing the expansion.
"The scale of their project and the size that they're looking at building, it's a mega church," Currie said in an interview Monday. "And it feels like it's being forced upon us."
Ayman Hassan, also living across the street from the church, remembers the protesters who came to the area when the church was shut down in 2021.
"There were buses — busloads of police officers waiting in riot gear if the crowd was, if supporters of GraceLife were not going to disperse," Hassan told CBC News Monday.
"And we understand those supporters were not GraceLife members, but their cry of freedom brought all these people out to our community and we needed police to keep people off of our yards."
Residents opposing the expansion say the county didn't give them direct notice in sufficient time for them to file a proper appeal.
They received notice by mail on Dec. 23, they said, as letters had been delayed because of the Canada Post strike.
That was long after the Dec. 6 deadline to file an appeal on the decision.
The Parkland County office was then closed for the holidays.
Enoch Cree Nation also said the Canada Post strike delayed notices and gave them little time to research and prepare for an appeal.
"You can't appeal something that you don't know about," Evan Duffy, a lawyer representing Enoch Cree Nation, told the board Monday.
The First Nation should have been consulted and should have been given a copy of the actual application, Duffy added.
Rob Chomiak, representing GraceLife Church, told the board that the church is fine with postponing an appeal hearing.
The board will decide within 15 days whether to hold a hearing on the church's expansion plans.
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